At school, children are exposed to a wide range of subjects that will help their future success. Whether it’s learning how to concentrate or building cognitive skills, young kids get the opportunity to learn many new things.
Children need a safe and positive learning environment to thrive. When poverty, conflict or natural disasters cut off children from schooling, they miss out on their chance for a brighter future.
Learning styles
Children typically have an innate preference for a learning style that allows them to absorb and process information best. Educators recommend understanding your child’s preferred learning style, so that you can adapt their education accordingly.
Visual learners process information in a picture-like way, so they thrive on maps, graphs, diagrams and charts. They often have a vivid imagination, excellent recollection and excel at art and reading.
Auditory learners thrive on listening, and do well in school when the material is presented verbally or recited aloud. They may have a good vocabulary and tend to love music, talk excessively or even sleep with their radio on.
Kinesthetic learners prefer hands-on opportunities, and do well in school when they can move around or participate in group activities. They have great physical memory and may fidget if they are not actively involved.
Healthy eating and physical activity
Getting enough exercise and eating a healthy diet are important for children’s health. They help reduce the risk for chronic health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
One study found that the culturally sensitive Health-E-PALS program helped improve several key dietary and physical activity behaviours in students. The programme used games, riddles, rhymes and traditional foods to deliver messages about the importance of healthy eating and physical activity in a context that resonates with local culture.
Children’s participation in healthy eating and physical activity programmes can catalyze positive family nutrition and physical activity changes. Parents in the BOKS trial reported more family meals at home, less sedentary time and healthier snacking habits since their children began participating in the intervention. They also ate more fruits and vegetables, fewer fast foods, ice cream or other high-fat and sugary snacks.
Developing good readers
Children who enjoy reading tend to have higher self-esteem and are more willing to try new things. They also have better academic achievements, which can help them to interpret life situations and make the best possible decisions.
A child’s literacy development is influenced by many factors, including the language and print they encounter outside school. Studies show that “code-focused” activities, such as reading to preschool children and teaching them letter-sound relationships, give them a head start on decoding skills when they enter school (Senechal & LeFevre, 2002).
Reading aloud to children helps them develop vocabulary. It also enables them to use their imaginations and learn about people, places and events that are different from those they already know about. This is called comprehension, and it’s an important part of developing good readers.
Imagination and creativity
Imagination and creativity are essential in children’s education. Creative thinking allows kids to think outside of the box and find new solutions to problems. This can be encouraged by allowing kids to create art or exploring different materials such as paper, clay, wood, water and shadows. It’s also important to allow kids to play imaginatively, whether it’s role-playing or creating imaginary worlds.
Research has shown that children’s imaginative ideas on issues such as sustainability of animals are important. However, their processes are not well understood. This is why this article scrutinizes how imagination as an ongoing process emerges and impacts a situation. It does this through a pragmatic analysis (PEA) of children’s transactions where imagination transforms aspects/content from diverse experiences into new imaginative blends.
Social skills
Children need to learn how to interact with other people. This includes learning what it is like to listen to others, how to make eye contact, and how to follow instructions. Children who have good social skills have a better time adapting to the classroom and developing friendships with other children. These friendships can last a lifetime and contribute to their academic, behavioral, and social-emotional development.
Children’s social skills are influenced by their environment and experiences, as well as the expectations they receive. Early childhood educators (ECE) have a unique perspective because they observe a wide variety of social behaviors and interactions. A multivariable linear regression analysis showed a statistically significant association between social skill domain scores from teachers and parents in the areas of cooperation, assertion, and self-control and children’s sociodemographic characteristics.